Rockwell Norman is a typical American

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Rockwell Norman (1894-1978) was an American illustrator and artist, popular in his homeland, the United States of America. For almost five decades, it has been a mirror of American culture.

Childhood

Rockwell Norman was born in New York. His ancestors moved to America in search of a better life from Somerset County in Britain and were among the first settlers in Windsor, Connecticut.

Parents transferred a talented boy from high school to art school when he was fourteen years old. At the age of 15, fame came to him - he drew postcards for Christmas. A variety of topics: preparing for Christmas in the kitchen, family hugs at a meeting, depicting happy, prosperous people and children - brought considerable popularity to the teenager.

Next Rockwell Norman studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. At 18, he was already illustrating Tales of Mother Nature. After that, he was invited to make sketches from the life of boys. He succeeded and at the age of 19 he became the art editor of the Boys' Lives magazine, which was intended for the Boy Scouts of America. Yes, drawingmagazine covers, he spent three years.

Independent work

At twenty-one, Rockwell Norman created his own studio. Orders were not long in coming. For the weekly "Saturday Evening Magazine" he created covers for 50 years, believing that it reflects the life of Americans more accurately than any other publication. In New York, the artist married, but the marriage was short-lived. Disappointed and depressed, he leaves for a friend in California, where he meets Mary Barstow and marries her. The young couple returns to the suburbs of New York - New Rochelle. They have three children. This 30-40 years - the time of the most fruitful work of Rockwell. In 1939 the family moved to Arlington. There, the theme of small town life will appear in his works.

It could be, for example, an office where both an old man and a young woman work at typewriters. Around them, life is in full swing, a porter enters the room with a box, someone rearranges the tables, but the couple behind the typewriters are working enthusiastically.

World War II and later

The artist really wanted to be drafted into the army and defend the world from Nazism. But the first time they didn’t take him - he turned out to be too thin. I had to go on a diet that consisted of donuts and bananas. This helped only partly. He was called up, but not sent to the front line. In 1943, Norman was inspired by Roosevelt's speech in which the president stated the 4 principles of universal rights: freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the nation from fear. These topics deeply affected both the citizen andhuman artist named Norman Rockwell. The paintings were created quickly. The artist himself considered the work "Freedom of Speech" to be the best.

The canvas depicts a simple ordinary American, who is standing on the podium, and next to him is located and, what is important, listening to his we althy, judging by the clothes, the public. The painting "Freedom from Want" depicts an average American family gathered around a table in a bright, clean, tidy room. The table is beautifully set, and there are already fruits and dessert on it, and the hostess is looking for a place where to put a large oval dish with a turkey. In the same year, a fire broke out in his studio, which destroyed both paintings and historical props. Therefore, the fire divided his work into two parts. Now the artist works only with modern material, where only characters and situations consonant with the time were presented. In 1959, his wife died suddenly of a heart attack. Grief put his work on hold.

Further life and work

In 1961, Rockwell marries for the third time. By this time, he lives with his family in the town of Stockbridge. Rockwell was a prolific artist. During his life he wrote more than four thousand works. These are paintings, and calendars, and covers for magazines, and illustrations for fiction, and advertisements for Coca-Cola, and movie posters, and portraits, and much more.

An interesting generalized portrait of students, made graphically. Good smart faces of girls and boys immediately evoke sympathy for the youngergeneration.

The portrait of President Nixon shows the statesman not in a formal setting and not in family life, but against an indefinite brownish background, which, however, does not create gloom. Before the viewer, a person open to all who will listen to every request addressed to him.

The painting "Matthew Brady Photographs Lincoln" was created in 1975, when the artist was already approaching the end of his career. Unfortunately, this historical theme did not work out for him. The image looks too much like a holiday card.

In the last years of his life, he raised such serious topics as racism. The Problem We All Live With deals with the issue of bringing white and black children together in the same school. A black girl is being escorted to school by security guards while racist graffiti is scribbled on the walls.

Norman Rockwell is an artist whose work is perceived ambiguously by art historians. Most tend to think that it is too "sweet" and sentimental and idealizes American life.

Conclusion

In 1977, Rockwell was awarded the Medal of Freedom. And in 1978 the artist died at the age of 84. Life was spent in work and ordinary household chores, but Norman Rockwell, his biography showed, did not experience problems with daily bread, he was very successful financially.